Last weekend Nana and I went to the Powell Family Reunion in Wake Forest, NC. My great-grandmother was Lucy Powell Lloyd who's grandfather was Wiley Powell, seen in this picture on the left. The reunion has descendents of Wiley's eight children.
Wiley's g-g-g-g-g-grandfather was David Powell, a Welshman who came to Jamestown in 1615 where he had inherited land from the King of England. Wiley's wife was Alcy Peebles whose g-g-g-g-g-grandfather was Capt. David Peebles, a Scotsman who was paid Virginia land by the King. They came in 1647 on a smaller ship like those above on the right.
During the late 1700's many Virginians came to North Carolina in a northern section opened by the Earl of Grandville. The Powells, Peebles, and probably the Lloyds came to N.C. before 1800. Nana and I had a great time at the reunion, meeting all these 3rd, 4th, and 5th cousins who had stories of their ancestors. We especially liked touring Wiley's homestead which he purchased in 1843. We toured the Grandville County Historical Museum and Raleigh Natural History Museum (which had a special exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls).
Nana and I had a great time with Jason in Austin this past week. We really liked going to chilly 68 degrees Barton Spring when Austin was hitting 104 degrees. I liked watching (not joining in) as Jason swam laps in the 900 ft long pool. Imagine millions of gallons of cold water a day... The water is soooo cold it took my breath away. We also liked our trip over to Whole Food Market. I would weigh even more if I lived near one of those stores but I had to get the whole-wheat peanut-butter chocolate chip cookies. Monday evening we went to watch the bats come out of the bridge over Town Lake. It's eery seeing 1.5 million bats going out to eat 30,000 lbs. of insects a night. We also visited a couple organic gardens to get ideas. We especially liked the Boogy Creek Farm east of downtown. We wish we could get to see Jason more often, so we're scheming to bring him back to Texas.
